As for DeFi, $ETH price is more critical to the crypto industry as a whole because it is still he benchmark of operating cost for many developers, as it sets the cost for transactions fees, NFTs at least until the nominal prices in ETH is adjusted for affordability.
For instance, a fixed price of 1ETH for 1NFT at current prices +3600 more than ×2.5 times the nominal dollar value it had 2m ago when it traded at ~1300. As result that NFT is nominally more expensive. Fixed fees, under the same basis, are more expensive in terms of stable coins, and thus ALTCOINS and services running on Ethereum must assume higher operating cost, thus they mark up their existences (their own ETH or the tokens of their project) in order to compensate for it.
It is logical to assume the rally on all other #altcoins, specially running in Ethereum is incidental, and in some cases even parasitic.
Remember ETH is recovering a level it lost early this year, as new investments are replenishing, rather filling the gap left by massive outflows of Feb-May 2025.
Given he instability of market sentiment, one must be cautious as it approaches 4000, because disbelief (contrarianism), overconfidence (credulousness) and reality (non speculative demand) will eventually converge.
